Executive Coaching Lessons from the World Cup

Coaches have been in the headlines during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. British newspapers have ridiculed England's World Cup squad and called upon coach Fabio Capello to quit after elimination by a humiliating 4-1 defeat to Germany.

The loss was marked by a refereeing mistake that denied England a goal. But the papers' anger was mainly directed at the coach, Capello.

Meanwhile France, a world soccer powerhouse, was eliminated from the World Cup this year in the first round, scoring only one goal in three games. The French ejection from a tournament they won in 1998 followed an apparent collapse in relations between coach Raymond Domenech and his players. Domenech left team captain Patrice Evra out of the final match and the team refused to practice just days before it.

Like the French players, some derailed executives, reject coaching. But why?

First, let’s tackle that word can’t. To my thinking here’s no such thing as “can’t.” There’s either “I won’t do it” or “I don’t know how to do it.”

In my experience as an executive coach, “can’t” means the person is afraid and just doesn’t know how to change. But even if somebody knows how to change, for them to self-develop and make the change on their own is very difficult. We all need feedback, and we all need support and encouragement. Unless we know what we did and what we need to do and somebody teaches us how to do it, we can’t improve.

As I mention in my book, The Prodigal Executive, people don’t really self-develop. To illustrate, every World Cup soccer team practices. At every practice there are four cameras set up on stilts that are recording the action. The players are improving by constantly looking at film afterwards with the coaches. Together they look at what they did in a situation and discuss what they should have done differently. In addition there are also coaches at the practice giving the players ongoing feedback on how to improve. If the team doesn’t provide that kind of coaching, players won’t know what to change, and they won’t be inspired to do it.

Teams like Brazil and Germany have won many World Cups. So the question is: “Why are they practicing? They know how to play soccer.” The answer of course is that there is so much at stake they want to rehearse and go over the plays. Likewise, there is so much at stake for these derailed executives. They need to run the plays when it’s not in a game situation. Where else can they do that but with a coach who can give them feedback?